"I saw a film called The Red Balloon, in which a boy floats off on balloons, when I was a child and ever since I've wanted to do it."

Mr Ashpole had risen to 5,000ft attached to a support balloon to give him enough height to be able to parachute safely to the ground.

He then released himself and rose a further 6,000ft at an initial rate of around 1,000ft a minute.

"The one worrying moment came when I released myself from the support balloon and began to spin quite dramatically. I thought for a while I might have a problem," he said.

"It got to a point where a lot of balloons were starting to burst - it was like machine guns going off - and I cut myself free without any problem."

Mr Ashpole kept his knife firmly tied around his neck and had a spare knife in a pocket.

"The one thing you don't want to do is drop the knife. I gripped it for dear life," he said. "The worry would be that if you got higher than 15,000ft you would start having problems with oxygen."

He landed about 10 miles from where he took off and took 30 minutes to drive back.

"It was so exciting. Certainly the best one of the three I've done," he added. "It was a beautiful day and the weather was perfect. I won't be doing it again next week, but no doubt I shall have another try."

His wife added, "I don't under-stand it. I have no idea why he wants to do it. It's obviously great fun for him. I don't think I could stop him doing it if I wanted to."